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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27061486">and I knew you'd come back to me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Otherworldliness/pseuds/Otherworldliness'>Otherworldliness</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Emmerdale</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Amnesia, F/F, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRAN!!!!, Lots of Liv focus at the start but don't worry it's a robron fic, M/M, Mistaken Identity, Reunion 3.0, this includes references to the Vic storyline and Lee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:22:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,524</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27061486</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Otherworldliness/pseuds/Otherworldliness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Turning, Liv saw that the tow truck had finally arrived. The two of them watched as it drove up the road, parked just behind them and the door opened.<br/>And as Robert Sugden stepped out.</p><p>Two years ago, Robert Sugden and Lee Posner fell to their death. Two years ago, one body was found while the other was presumed to be lost forever.<br/>Now, Liv's not so sure that's what happened.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aaron Dingle/Robert Sugden, Liv Flaherty/Gabby Thomas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>and I knew you'd come back to me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRAN!!<br/>If you're somehow not already aware, Fran is the person responsible for the youtube channel of the same name and all the edits and general robron videos that live there. I highly recommend checking them out if you want to improve your day.<br/>Fran, I'm so sorry this in two parts. I'm a dumbass who forgot how much you love livgabby and had to shoehorn them in the other day. Part 2 will be here tomorrow.</p><p>I hope you like it!<br/>(Title from Cardigan by Taylor Swift)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western">When Aaron was a child, he had wished for the world to end. He'd blown out birthday candles while imagining asteroids striking the Earth, had dreamed of tidal waves the size of giants and prayed for balls of uncontrollable flames. For anything, as long as it was strong enough to end, well, everything. But because Aaron had been the type of child that cried at the thought of death, he hadn't been wishing and dreaming and praying for the end of the actual world – but his own.</p><p class="western">On his own world he was the only inhabitant. Or he was the world itself; his adolescent brain hadn't entirely figured it all out. All he'd known was that when he wished for an apocalypse, it was for one that was entirely his own. That would end his world while the real one remained intact and spinning.</p><p class="western">Adult Aaron merely wished that his child self had stopped wishing.</p><p class="western">On the day his world finally ended, the wind had howled like a rabid wolf. There had been no other signs that that day was to be the end – the sky had been a bright, cloudless blue and the water bellow had shined prettily in it's light – but the wind had known. Like a demon it had stood at the edge of the quarry that day, waiting patiently for the right time to push any man that dared walk by down into the unforgiving arms of the water.</p><p class="western">But Robert Sugden wasn't afraid of demons. He'd faced, beaten and held too many. So, with his feet planted firmly in the ground against the wind, he had stopped running near the edge and waited for a different kind of demon to catch up to him.</p><p class="western">The one that was going to end the world.</p><p class="western">Aaron wasn't even supposed to have been there when it had happened. The plan had been this: Robert would meet with the demon better known as Lee Posner alone, bringing a bag that supposedly contained the money that would bargain Vic's freedom, and goad him into making a confession that Robert would record. There'd been no reason for anyone else to get involved, or so he'd said. But as Robert liked taking on demons that weren't his own, Aaron liked taking on Robert's. So he had not only ignored the <em>trust me</em>'s and <em>please, Aaron</em>'s by quietly hiding his car down the road where the two men had met – but had also chased after them when they'd ran.</p><p class="western">“<em>Sugden</em>,” Lee had bellowed over the roaring of the wind as he too came to a stop near the edge. Aaron had stopped and stood from a safe distance away, unsure of what he could do to help. “There's nowhere to run now. Nowhere to hide. You may as well hand it over before I have to make this ugly.”</p><p class="western">Slowly, Robert had turned to face Lee, his phone gripped so tightly in his hand that even from a distance Aaron had still been able to see the whiteness of his knuckles. Like that, the wind had blown directly into him; the force of it looked as if the demon had held his hair and blazer back. Aaron would've thought he'd looked beautiful if he hadn't been so keenly aware of the edge behind him.</p><p class="western">“Oh really?” he'd asked, cool and calm. “How ugly are you thinking? As ugly as you saying that you wished my sister had put up more of a fight when you'd raped her? <em>That</em> ugly?”</p><p class="western">Lee had had his back to him, but Aaron had still seen the way he'd stiffened to that, the way his hands had flexed. “Do you really think that's gonna be enough?” He'd tried to sound mocking, but not even the wind had been able to mask the fear in his voice. “After everything you've done to me? With all the <em>proof</em> I have of you obsessing over me? The police will think you've faked it.”</p><p class="western">If it had been Aaron standing there, then he would've faltered. Even though the goal hadn't been to use the recording to get legal justice, even though they'd come that far, Aaron knew well enough how awfully these plans tended to end. He would've back down, deleted the recording, maybe even thrown the phone off the edge. If it had been Aaron, three men would've gone home that day.</p><p class="western">But it hadn't been Aaron. And the goal hadn't been to get legal justice. And, really, there had been more demons than men standing on that edge.</p><p class="western">Instead of faltering, Robert had smiled. “Then give me one good reason why you want me to delete it.”</p><p class="western">Barely even a second had passed before Lee charged at him.</p><p class="western">It had all happened so quickly. Aaron had only been able to watch on, frozen, as the two men scrambled for the phone; Robert holding it high in the air as Lee desperately tried to force it down. He'd never known Robert to have as much upper body strength as he'd had then, not allowing his arm to fall even as Lee grasped him with both hands.</p><p class="western">When Lee's grip seemed to become too much, Robert had firmly planted his other hand on Lee's chest, pushing him back. The two of them had looked ridiculous; more akin to children than grown men. It was that ridiculousness that had stopped Aaron from intervening once the shock had worn off.</p><p class="western">He wished it hadn't. Because, no matter how ridiculous they were being, the edge had still been there. And so, unfortunately, had Lee's legs.</p><p class="western">Frustrated, or hoping it would make Robert bend over, or both, Lee had kicked him right in the knee. Robert had cried out in pain, the sound harmonising with the wind as a particularly powerful gust had come over them, but he had not bent over as Lee may have hoped.</p><p class="western">No – he'd recoiled back, back, back instead.</p><p class="western">He should've been able to steady himself. There had still been a reasonable amount of ground between him and the edge to put his feet, and Lee had been stable enough to have been used as a buoy, but that wind – that relentless, strong and evil wind – had had other ideas. As he'd stumbled back it had reached a new peak in speed, knocking whatever balance Robert had had left from under him.</p><p class="western">And forcing him to fall off the edge.</p><p class="western">“<em>Robert</em>!” The cry had ripped out of Aaron as if it had been pulled by the same winds that had pushed his husband. He'd ran forward, unable to stop himself, and the sound of it must've startled Lee since he'd then made one last, futile reach for the phone in Robert's hand. But like the wind, Robert had been feeling merciless that day and had had a hand around Lee's wrist before his fingers had so much as grazed the phone.</p><p class="western">They'd disappeared behind the edge together. Aaron had reached it just in time to see them hit the water, their bodies looking like a mess of limbs from the distance above. He couldn't remember how long he'd stood there, breath held as he'd waited for something, anything.</p><p class="western">But there had been nothing. They were gone.</p><p class="western">And so, the world had ended.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Liv couldn't help but feel like her life was only just beginning. She knew that that wasn't such a bad thing to be feeling at nineteen – that it was normal, even – but that didn't mean that she felt it any less. She'd always known that something like this would happen, that her circumstances would catch up to her in some way, even if she hadn't exactly expected to feel ashamed when looking at other people her age. But her real issue wasn't that she felt guilty for being a late bloomer. Her issue was that the feeling was <em>haunting</em> her. Sometimes it woke her up way before sunrise, that feeling, thinking that she'd already missed several important hours of the day. It was like a buzzing in her chest, small but constant. And annoyingly unshakeable.</p><p class="western">If she told Aaron about it, she knew he'd think it was something to do with Gordon. Some left over trauma from being moved around her whole life, unable to truly be a child. And if she told Chas, she'd say it was about university, that the feeling like she'd missed something vital was because she was starting a year late. But she wasn't going to tell them about it. Not because she was afraid to, like she would've been when she was younger and more unsure of her place in the world, but because she already knew why.</p><p class="western">It was because of Gabby.</p><p class="western">“Do you need me to pick up anything from David's for ya before you go?” Aaron asked. They were in her room; Liv checking that she'd packed everything into her suitcase while her brother watched awkwardly from the doorway.</p><p class="western">Without even looking up, she joked, “Is this your way of telling me that you're fine with buying me tampons now?”</p><p class="western">“<em>No</em>,” he said quickly, cringing just as much as she'd hoped he would. “Does David's even sell stuff for periods?”</p><p class="western">“I've never been desperate enough to check.”</p><p class="western">The thing about Liv and Gabby that most people didn't realise was that they had been playing a game since the day they'd first met. A game that the two of them had always known they were playing, even if they'd never known what for. It had taken several years of trying to compete against each other for the two of them to realise that the easiest way to win was together, not apart. That it was them against the rest of the world.</p><p class="western">And it was going good. Better than good, even if they still hadn't talked about what they were gonna do about sex yet. Transitioning from friends to lovers had been surprisingly smooth; everything was practically the same between them, except now they held hands and kissed and cooked each other dinner when their respective guardians were out for the evening. In fact it was almost everything Liv had ever hoped a relationship could be, as scary as that was to realise. But the state of their relationship wasn't what was causing the feeling.</p><p class="western">“I s'pose Gabby will have everything you don't anyway,” Aaron said. “The two of you have always been weirdly connected like that.”</p><p class="western">She flipped him off playfully, using her other hand to pull her suitcase off the bed. She almost said <em>You're one to talk</em>, too, but caught herself – she'd gotten good at doing that now. “We'll be fine,” she said instead, ignoring the pit in her stomach that worried if that was true.</p><p class="western">Liv merely had to take one look down main street to know that figuring out you were a lesbian at nineteen wasn't, by any means necessary, late. With her lack of sexual attraction making things harder, it was probably in record time that she'd discovered who and what she actually liked. Really she should just be counting herself lucky that she figured herself out before she ever had a real relationship with a man. Or had a baby with a seventeen year old.</p><p class="western">But that was the thing – she'd never really dated anyone. There had been her relationship with Jacob, but that had been entirely smoke and mirrors on his part, and Vinny, but that had only been some fun pretending to keep Mandy off his back. She had almost no idea what it was like to be with someone, especially not someone she liked as much as Gabby. And not only had Gabby dated more, but she had been out for longer too; her coming out being what made Liv reconsider her own sexuality. How could Liv ever be enough for someone so many miles ahead of her?</p><p class="western">Which is what brought them to the week away.</p><p class="western">Gabby was already parked outside. When she and Aaron walked up the Mill's driveway, she smiled so brightly that Liv's chest started to hurt. They were going to spend one whole week together, completely alone, in the Lake district; Gabby was into that era of poetry and, well, Liv was into Gabby. A whole week alone, and in that week Liv would be the best girlfriend anyone could possibly be. She would prove to herself that she could do this, be in a relationship that meant something, without fucking it up.</p><p class="western">After Aaron put the suitcase in the boot, her chest started hurting for a different reason.</p><p class="western">“Are you sure <em>you're</em> going to be OK?” she asked, putting a hand on his arm.</p><p class="western">He rolled his eyes and shrugged her hand off. “<em>Yes</em>. I've done this whole anniversary thing before, remember, I can do it again.”</p><p class="western">Liv had learned young that there was a catch to everything in life. And the catch to the week away was that it fell on the two year anniversary of Robert Sugden's death. It had been the only week Liv and Gabby's respective summer jobs had allowed them both off at the same time (and Liv had only realised, with a heavy weight settling into her bones, what day would be included in that week days after she'd already booked it).</p><p class="western">“You didn't exactly do so well last time, though,” she pointed out. She tried not to shudder as she recalled the sight of her brother passed out on the kitchen floor, beer cans and a shattered bottle of vodka surrounding him.</p><p class="western">“It's easier now than it was last year.” Liv frowned. “It has to be,” he amended, although Liv didn't think that it made what he'd said any more true. With a sigh, he walked round the car and opened the passenger side door for her. “Go, Liv. I'll be fine. You'll be fine. Everything's gonna be fine.”</p><p class="western">As Liv sat down in the car, she head him say it again. <em>Everything's gonna be fine.</em></p><p class="western">She hoped so. She really, really did.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">The car broke down thirty minutes away from the hotel. They'd been waiting for the tow truck for forty.</p><p class="western">“I told you we should've called AA,” Liv said. She was pacing the length of the car, clenching her fists in and out and in and out. This was typical. So, so typical.</p><p class="western">“The guy on the phone just said he's only five minutes away.” Gabby was sat on the bonnet of the car, the picture of calmness, scrolling through her phone where she'd found the number for a local garage. Because of course she had to be dealing with this well. “You know, the hotel saying that check in starts at one doesn't mean we have to be there by one,” she joked, smiling like this was the funniest thing in the world. “I knew you were impatient, Liv, but not <em>this</em> impatient.”</p><p class="western">Liv forced herself to stop pacing. “I should've got Aaron to check the car over before we left,” she sighed, running a hand over her face. “He asked me if we needed anything else n'all. God, why am I so <em>stupid</em>?”</p><p class="western">“<em>Hey</em>.” Liv turned to see that Gabby was frowning, her eyebrows pinched together in concern. “That's my girlfriend you're talking about.” Usually any mention of their relationship was enough to make her smile, but now it just made her feel worse. “And, ya know, <em>my</em> car. That<em> I</em> should've got checked out before going on a long drive.”</p><p class="western">Liv immediately shook her head. “This isn't your fault.”</p><p class="western">“Then how's it yours?”</p><p class="western">When Liv didn't answer, Gabby stretched her arms out towards her; inviting her into her embrace. And there were many things in this world that Liv could say no to, but a hug from her girlfriend was not one of them. She accepted it instantly, wrapping her arms around Gabby's waist while Gabby wrapped her own around Liv's shoulders, letting Liv tuck her head into the space between her shoulder and neck. It didn't make her feel any less at fault, but it definitely calmed her down.</p><p class="western">After a moment of pressing small kisses into Liv's neck, Gabby asked softly, “What's going on?”</p><p class="western">When again Liv didn't answer, Gabby pinched her side. When she stayed silent even then, Gabby tried to pull her forward so they were face to face, but Liv firmly kept herself where she was.</p><p class="western">“Liv-”</p><p class="western">“<em>I feel like I'm going to ruin this</em>,” she said quickly, hoping that Gabby's neck would muffle the words.</p><p class="western">But Gabby still understood. She was very good at doing that. “What? The trip?”</p><p class="western">“Everything.” Reluctantly, Liv finally pulled her face from Gabby's neck, but let her eye's focus keenly on the ground. “The trip. Our relationship. All of it.”</p><p class="western">Gabby gave her a small smile. “Because of one break down?”</p><p class="western">“No, I've felt like this for a while.” When Gabby's smile dropped, Liv's heart jumped in panic. “I just can't shake this feeling that I'm gonna make you leave me,” she tried to explain.</p><p class="western">For a moment, Gabby looked like she had no idea what to say. Her silence made Liv feel sick. Then, “Well, the only way that would ever happen is if you cheated on me and I think we both know that <em>that's</em> never gonna happen-”</p><p class="western">“But there's so much more that could bite us in the end,” she interrupted her. “I don't want sex, but you do. Surely that's an issue?”</p><p class="western">“I never would've got with you if I thought it would be.” Her voice was hard and incredulous, as if she couldn't believe Liv would even think something like that. “I'm not that stupid – or cruel. And if it ever does, then we'll deal with it like we're dealing with the car. <em>Together</em>. And when more of our cars break down, we'll deal with them the exact same way.”</p><p class="western">Despite herself, Liv couldn't help but smile. “But what if the car gets too broken to fix?”</p><p class="western">“Then we'll get another one.” Gabby laughed at her own words, which made Liv laugh too. “There's no one else I'd want to deal with a break down with, you know that right?”</p><p class="western">Liv nodded, even though she knew that her fear of being too far behind wouldn't go away that easily. She moved to kiss her, but Gabby's eyes suddenly flicked over Liv's shoulder. “<em>Finally</em>.”</p><p class="western">Turning, Liv saw that the tow truck had finally arrived. The two of them watched as it drove up the road, parked just behind them and the door opened.</p><p class="western">And as Robert Sugden stepped out.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Liv blinked once. Then twice. Then five times. Then ten.</p><p class="western">But the man remained there, dressed in green overalls and walking towards her with a kind smile on his face – <em>Robert Sugden's</em> face.</p><p class="western">Her first thought was that she was being haunted. It would be so like Robert to haunt someone, especially her and especially during a car break down on a country road in the middle of nowhere. But Gabby could see him too, Liv had felt her arms tense from where they were still wrapped around her, so he must've been real. Her second was that someone had stolen his body, and that was why they'd never found it in the quarry. But that just wasn't possible.</p><p class="western">Was it?</p><p class="western">“Liv and Gabby?” he asked as he reached them – with <em>Robert Sugden's</em> voice. It had been so long since she'd heard it, but now that she was it was as if she was hearing an old favourite song after years of not playing it. The sound of it made her freeze completely.</p><p class="western">Luckily, Gabby was able to recover from the shock. “That's us,” she said. “And you're-?”</p><p class="western">“Matt.”</p><p class="western"><em>Matt. Not Robert.</em> Liv tried to make the name fit the face, but it wouldn't no matter how hard she stared at it. As she did so, the stranger wearing Robert's face began to look more and more uncomfortable.</p><p class="western">“Sorry,” Liv said. Her voice felt wrong in her throat. “You just. You look like someone I know.”</p><p class="western">That seemed to ease him, but only slightly. “Not someone bad, I hope.”</p><p class="western">“Oh no,” she shook her head quickly, probably too quickly, “definitely not.”</p><p class="western">An awkward silence passed as the three of them stared between each other. Then, with an even more awkward cough, Matt said, “I should probably take a look under that bonnet.”</p><p class="western">“Right,” Gabby said, pushing Liv forward so that she could get off. “Right, yeah, of course.”</p><p class="western">Liv said nothing else after that. Thankfully Gabby was willing to answer all the questions he had about the car, allowing her to stand back and watch as he worked. Every time his hands – Robert Sugden's hands, hands that she knew, hands that she'd seen work on cars before – reached into the car, a new feeling washed over her. While the last one had been a insistent buzz, this one was a block of ice running up and down her spine. It was like dread, but sharper; harder. It was a feeling that was going to be much more difficult to shake than the last.</p><p class="western">A feeling that something was very, deeply wrong.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you're thinking "hey, isn't this kinda like that one neighbours storyline years ago where-?" then yes, yes it is.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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